CC7.07a The Morisco

Well, here I am at the first episode of The Flames of Cadiz, a Companion Chronicle released at the beginning of the year. I've mostly avoided listening to the first Doctor's CCs, but if my marathon continues onto the second Doctor I'll have far fewer stories to review fresh since I have been devouring those at a frightening rate. It's currently my favourite audio range, partly because there has been more experimentation than we've heard elsewhere.

So it's a little disappointing to find that the format for this adventure is basically that of an enhanced audiobook. I observed in my review of The Cannibal Flower that it was much better to have a natural division of voices: when you have both William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, let each of them do what they are best at! Here we are back to Russell attempting Barbara's speech, and Ford the Doctor's. There is also no framing device beyond generic, timeless reminiscing - and the way Ian and Susan are discussing the story has them mentioning things that nobody would bother to say in a real conversation. So, apart from the multiple first person perspectives, right from the start it sounds like two decent performers reading a Target novelisation - Doctor Who and the Spaniards, perhaps? Quite offputting, after hearing a run of CCs which are much closer to drama.

Another thing that threw me off was the idea of Ian growing up in North-East England, somewhere near Sunderland. He's not an actor, so why would he end up with an RP accent (which is basically middle-to-upper class South-East)? It also conflicts with other stories I've either heard or read, which have him playing in the bombsites of London. Unless I've misremembered the London part, seeing as Northern cities were hit as well during the Second World War.

So, not a particularly good start - but then the mention of Barbara going on holiday to Spain in 1962 hit a nostalgia chord, putting me into a more receptive mood again. We never had foreign holidays when I was a child, but I remember my mum telling me that once - before I was born, but when she was an adult - she took her mother to Spain, which was a once-in-a-lifetime treat to do something that my grandmother had always wanted. The trip as a whole was a great success, but the aircraft was unpressurised and mum had an awful flight as she discovered that one ear - which had been damaged when she was too close to an exploding bomb during the war - couldn't adjust to the pressure difference. (We used to joke that the only difference between her ears was the letter 'S' - one was tone deaf, the other stone deaf.) A little piece of family history I haven't thought much about for years.

And after that we are into the actual story, which fits rather beautifully into this era of the show, reminding me of a cross between The Reign of Terror and The Crusades. It's full of little details alongside spectacle, and with enough of a history lesson to satisfy the show's original brief. It's also a rollicking, action-packed adventure, in contrast to any episode of The Masters of Luxor. Though there are some similarities, too - primarily the focus on the Catholic/Protestant conflict, albeit on the people this time rather than the theology.

And, yes, of course we get the Inquisition. All the iconography is there - torture implements and cells, priests trying to trick sinners into confession - as it would have been on TV in 1964. But there's also a comment about how our historical view of it has been set in stone, which resonated with an article I was reading in the Radio Times by Jeremy Paxman on that very subject. I am writing this on Remembrance Sunday; he was talking about the hundredth anniversary of the First World War, a catastrophe that has been so "overlain with myth and legend" that we can no longer get at the truth. History is what gets written down; what actually happened is just living.

Which is why the comment about Ian's watch working but still being useless is so poignant. We would need a time machine to truly understand the past, but we can remember those who worked to make the future better (in all sorts of ways), and strive to build on their legacy. One day we will be part of that hidden past; the best we can hope for is that history will think well of us.

Rating:
It's hard to rate this. The story was excellent, both in terms of fitting with the period and as an exciting adventure, and I have no complaint about the performances, but the structure irritated me. As a result, I'll give it a compromise mark.

5/10.

Next Time:
The Justice of God.